The Birth of the Party Flag

In the early days of the founding of the Communist Party of China, local party organizations imitated the style of the flag of the Russian Communist Party (cloth), with sickle and axe as the logo, and the specific specifications and styles were different. From the first cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party to the Nanchang Uprising, because of the requirements of the situation, the Communist Party of China played the banner of the Kuomintang. After the failure of the Great Revolution, Mao Zedong repeatedly emphasized at the August 7th Conference and other occasions: "The flag of the Kuomintang has become the flag of the warlords, and only the flag of the Communist Party is the flag of the people." "We should no longer play the flag of the Kuomintang, we should play the flag of the Communist Party high".

In September 1927, Mao Zedong proposed in the Autumn Harvest Uprising on the border of Hunan and Jiangxi that the banner of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army should be displayed and He Changgong should be responsible for the design. This flag is made of bright red cloth, with a yellow five-pointed star sewn in the center, a sickle and axe in the center of the five stars, and the words "First Division of the First Army of the Workers and Peasants Revolutionary Army" are written on the white flag cover. Since then, our party and army have their own banner.

On October 15, 1927, the Joint Meeting of the Southern Bureau of the Communist Party of China and the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee passed the "Announcement No. 14 of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee of the Communist Party of China: Recent Work Program", which clearly pointed out: "Abolish the blue sky and white sun flag and use the red flag instead, with an axe and a sickle as the symbol." It basically frames the outline and constituent elements of the party flag. In April 1933, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to adjust the "axe" pattern in the party flag and emblem to a "hammer" pattern. Due to the frequency of the fighting, this decision has not been fully implemented. Since then, in the expression and production of the party flag, "axe" and "hammer" mixed phenomenon. In April 1945, the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in Yan'an, and the six party flags on the venue were dazzling. This is the first time that our party has hoisted the party flag at the National Congress.

After the founding of New China, Yang Shangkun, then director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, was very concerned about the issue of the party flag. In June 1950, he wrote to Liu Shaoqi on the issue of the party flag, with three sets of party flag patterns and instructions. In the same year, the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China drew up a plan for the production of the party flag: "The flag surface is red, rectangular, with the ratio of length to grade three and grade two. The upper left of the flag surface is decorated with yellow sickle and axe, and the flagpole cover is white." Since then, due to successive political movements, there has been no formal uniform regulation on the standard style of the party flag.

It was not until after the reform and opening up that the issue of the party flag was put back on the agenda. On September 21, 1996, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the "Certain Regulations on the Production and Use of the Party Flag and Emblem of the Communist Party of China", which formally set the standard for the Party flag: "The Party flag of the Communist Party of China is a red flag with a golden emblem on the surface of the flag. The Party emblem of the Communist Party of China is a pattern consisting of a sickle and a hammer." Since then, the flag of the Communist Party of China has a unified and clear norms. In November 2002, the "Articles of the Communist Party of China" adopted by the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was specifically included in the chapter "Party Emblem and Flag", which clearly stipulated the nature, production and use of the party emblem and flag design.

Source: Zhongzhi Party Building